Euphemia Lofton Haynes Biography

Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Euphemia Lofton Haynes made her name in D.C.’s academic world over the course of her career. After earning degrees in both math and instruction, in 1943, Haynes became the very first African American woman to get a Ph.D. in math. She subsequently required the educational system by thunderstorm, instructing in a wide range of settings and pressing constantly to change the face of instruction, which, at that time, frequently discovered black pupils falling right into a method of de facto segregation. Haynes was equally enthusiastic in regards to the Catholic Church, which she served until her death in 1980.

Her daddy proved to be a leading black dentist understood for backing African American companies in the D.C. place, and her mom was active in the Catholic Church—a characteristic that would carry on to Euphemia. She soon married childhood buddy Harold Appo Haynes, who, like Haynes, would afterwards became an influential leader in Washington’s African American school system.

In 1930, Haynes received a master’s degree in education in the University of Chicago. The exact same year, she founded the mathematics section at Miner Teachers College (later renamed the University of the District of Columbia), which focused on training African American teachers. Additionally being a professor in the faculty in 1930, Haynes stayed head of the school’s mathematics department for almost 30 years. Along with her educational functions in now, Haynes continued her studies in math, as well as in 1943 she earned a Ph.D. degree in the area making her the first black woman to do so from the Catholic University of America.

She was likewise a professor of math in the District of Columbia Teachers College, where she served as chair of the Division of Mathematics and Business Education. From these positions, Haynes was sung in her advocacy for poor pupils and better schools, denouncing the system’s segregation-tinged policies. She also co-founded the Catholic Interracial Council of the District of Columbia.

For her efforts for the Catholic Church, Haynes was granted a papal medal, the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice, in 1959. She joined the District of Columbia Board of Education the next year and became its president in 1966, continuing to fight racial segregation. Haynes expired on July 25, 1980, in the age of 89, in Washington, D.C. Upon her departure, the Catholic University of America received a bequest of $700,000 from her estate, with which they endowed a seat and created a student loan fund in their instruction section.